Another Stowaway
by Monkey Ruler
Summary: Three years ago Wolverine found a scared mutant hiding in his car. What chaos will ensue now that Rogue has found a smirking Cajun stowing away in the back of her truck?


Driving was boring. I had been driving non-stop for... a couple hours. And it was boring.

I opened the glove compartment, expecting to see my beloved stash of beef jerky. Instead, I found only one stray wrapper. I growled, before thinking about how I really needed to work on the whole psyche residue problem. Didn't need to suddenly find an attraction to red headed mutants. Until, that was, a certain someone's psyche who had enhanced senses picked up someone in the back of my truck.

I pulled over, opening the door and heading to the back of my baby. Feeling a weird sense of deja vu, I approached my luggage and ripped off the blanket covering it, staring in the face of a man around my age with shaggy brown hair and a brown trenchcoat. He was sleeping. With sunglasses. So I did what any other girl would do, and poke him in the back.

"Hey, wake up!" I yelled and he jumped up, pointing at me with some metal stick, "Watch it, psycho! Yo' the one sleepin' in my car!"

"Sorry, _cherie_." He grinned charmingly, leaping down from my car and bowing gracefully, "De names Henri."

"And why have you decided to grace me with yo' presence?"

"Didn't have enough time to try and flag y' down, taxi." He winked, "Thought I'd get a ride free of charge."

I rolled my eyes, deciding to take pity on the pathetic man. Stupid bum.

"Where ya headed?"

"New York."

"What a coincidence." I sighed, "Ah'll drop ya off at a Safeway or somethin'. C'mon."

Maybe I should be worried about letting a complete stranger in my car, but Logan probably should have too and he's like a big brother to me now. Maybe we'll get attacked by a psychoticb feral mutant and he'll save my life. And I want my beef jerky, dammit.

"Nice... car." He stated once he was settled in. It was one of those trailer truck house things. What? It was free.

"Ya got a problem with it?" I asked, thinking of what an ungrateful man he was being.

"_Non_, it's _tres belle_."

"Ah don' live in this, Ah'm just goin' back home." Or atleast I hoped it was still home. Didn't Miss Munroe say something like that? Either way, why did I feel the need to prove myself to that slimy stowaway?

"So, where'd y' get dis nice shiny.. truck?"

"Ah borrowed it." He nodded slowly, probably thinking she stole it, "Ah _borrowed _it, Henri."

"Why y' all covered up, _cherie_? It's not dat cold."

"Listen, do ya want meh tah give ya a ride or not?" I asked, my gloved hands gripping the steering wheel in anger.

"Just makin' conversation, _chere_." He smirked and I glared angrily.

To forget about the annoying hitchhiker, I turned on the radio, calming down when I heard angry screaming and guitar chords.

"Y' listen t' dat?" The man asked in disgust.

"What would ya prefer?"

"Jazz."

"Mah car, mah rules, mah music. And that means no jazz. Heavy metal."

"_We interrupt your music enjoyment for a brief announcement. A highly dangerous mutant, Remy LeBeau who goes by the alias Gambit, has escaped from a max-security prison a few hours ago. He's around six feet,-"_

The hitchhiker immediately turned off the radio, leaving the car in an awkward silence.

"So, _Henri_, mind tellin' me why ya turned off the radio?"

"Heavy metal is one t'ing, but don' make meh listen to dose borin' news reports." He smirked and my eyes narrowed.

"Yo' an idiot if you think that Ah'll believe that." I took off my gloves, still keeping control of the wheel, "Now give meh two reasons why Ah shouldn't knock ya unconscious raight now, Gambit."

"Cause of m' sparklin' personality and good looks?"

"Bettah then that."

"Because Gambit can blow up y' whole junk heap," He gestured towards the car, "With a touch of his finger."

"So that's yah power? Blowin' things up?"

"Somet'in' like dat."

"Okay." He frowned and knew something was wrong when I pulled the car over.

"_Cherie, _y' plannin' on killin' him?"

"Somethin' like that." I growled, lunging for him with my bare hand.

He ducked while sitting in the seat and grabbed her arms with his full length gloves, "Are y' crazy, _chere_?"

"First of all, don't call me _chere_. Second of all," My hands jerked forward just enough to touch his bare skin for a few seconds, knocking him out cold, "Rogue not deh one who's crazy, psycho. Aw, crap, Ah got his accent."

I struggled to block his memories from surfacing, not wanting to know what kind of slimy things he's been up to, and started up the car again. Knowing from experience, that much contact would have him sleeping for around five hours, just enough for my to get to the institute and find out what to do with that crazy jail escapee.

* * *

"What are you doing to Remy?" A shocked woman gasped. I looked at the man, unconscious and dumped on the floor. A man who escaped from prison known as a highly dangerous mutant and most likely murdered thousands in his wake. A vile, evil, man. And then I looked at Storm, the white haired weather goddess who was kind, and compassionate. Those two.. were not supposed to mix. Especially when Storm was lifting Remy's head and brushing the hair out of his eyes, with the look of a caring mother.

"Storm? Ya know this.. this.. psycho!?" I hugged Logan who followed Storm in greeting before casting another suspicious glance to Miss Munroe. It's always the nice ones who become psycho axe murderers.

"Psycho? He's one of the sweetest men I've known! Are you the one who knocked him out?"

"Miss Munroe, this Swamp Rat is a _highly dangerous mutant who escaped from a maximum security prison!_" I said, quoting the radio report.

"Prison? I thought he was safe and sound in the Thieves guild." She said worriedly.

"Thieves?" Logan asked, raising an eyebrow, "A thief is the sweetest man you've ever known? Rogue, how did you meet up with this guy? Did he do something to you?" He asked me, his overprotective big brother feelings showing through again.

"Relax, Logan. I found him sleeping in the back of my truck."

"A stowaway?" He was obviously reminded of me, since I was so cool.

"Yup. Just like how we met. So I thought I'd give him a ride to New York. He was kind of annoying, but I figured that was no reason to throw someone out of a car.

"So how did he turn into a crazy jail breaker?"

"I turned on the radio and heard this news report about a Remy LeBeau escaping from jails a couple hours ago and how he was a dangerous mutant and the stowaway just turned the radio off even after I told him my car, my radio. Then he made some stupid excuse about how he hated news even more than heavy metal."

"Well, they do drone on." Logan said sheepishly.

"Logan!"

"Sorry, darlin'."

"Either way, your psyche was still lingering in my head so I could smell the lie off of him. He ain't _Henri_ at all."

"Of course not, Henri is his brother." Storm said, not affected by this information at all, "Now let's get him to the MedLab." She said, using her weather bending abilities to float him down the hall.

"We're assisting in his escape, Miss Munroe! We're breaking the law! Ah'm gonna go to jail!" I panicked, running a hand through my hair and following after her.

"It's not his fault he was arrested, Rogue." She said airily.

"Yeah, it was the cops! The law's fault! Cause he broke it!"

"Remy is a sweet man, though he made some mistakes in the past. If anything, blame his family."

"Whatever. If the cops are gonna come after me too, I'm gonna say I was brainwashed."

"Rogue, how'd you knock him out?" Logan asked, sniffing the air, "I don't smell any blood coming from him."

"Oh, about that," She laughed, playing with her long hair, "The cure, kinda, wore off a couple days ago."

".. what?" He asked, staring at her.

"Yeah. Ah was just in the grocery store, this guy tapped me on the shoulder and BAM!" She slapped her two hands together, "Turns out he was gonna try and flirt with me. Instead he's fast asleep. So Ah cut mah vacation short and drove all the way here."

"You do know you're gonna be stuck in the MedLab for awhile, right?"

"Ah'm interested in knowin' what's happenin' tah me too, so yeah."

* * *

"So, doc." I said to the woman with silky black hair after an extremely detailed check up. I wish I had hair that shiny, "What's the deal with mah powers?"

She said a bunch of medical words that I didn't even try to understand with all the psyches I absorbed in the past. I think one said "durr"

"English, please?"

"They should have lasted five more years, but your powers treated it as a virus and killed it faster than your immune system would have."

"Oh, that's easy."

"It left you incredibly weak," It has? "So you're going to stay in bed for a week."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Tessa, don't be cruel."

* * *

"Where d' hell am I?" A voice groaned from behind me.

"Took you long enough to wake up." I said from the bed beside him, flipping another page in my book. Huh, Paris Hilton got outta jail. Who'da thought?

"Come t' kill Remy, _chere_? How 'bout y' give him a kiss first?" He said, still annoying even when he first wakes up.

"Please, Ah ain't gonna kill a weakling lahke you. It's an insult."

"Weakling?" Remy asked, his pride hurt.

"Yeah. You've been sleepin' the whole day. Usually when Ah absorb someone they're only out a couple hours. Not the _whole, entire, day_. And Ah just gave yeh a tap!"

"Remy just escaped from jail, he has a right to be tired." He looked around the infirmary, "Where did y' kidnap Remy anyway?"

"I kidnapped _Remy_,"See that there? I just mocked the way he talks. Major burn points for me, "to Xavier's Institute. Turns out you have a friend here." Unfortunately. Why didn't I just turn him in? I could've gotten so much money. Stupid conscious.

"Stormy? Dats where Remy was headin' anyway."

"Stormy?" I smirked, "How many times has she threatened to electrocute you for callin' her that?"

"Too many to count, _cherie_."

"Don' call me that." I frowned.

"Okay, _belle_."

"Don't call meh that either."

"Den what should I call a _belle chou fleur_ like you?"

"Did you jus' call meh a cauliflower?" She asked, knowing enough French from high school to recognize different types of food.

"'S romantic where Remy comes from." He shrugged.

"Yeah. Why are we not turnin' you over to the cops again?" I asked, really not knowing the answer myself. Or why I wasn't attacking him for being, I dunno, a dangerous criminal? Oh yeah, because I'm afraid of Storm when she's angry.

"'Cause Stormy t'inks of Remy as her little brother and therefore feels a need to protect him from deh big scary men wid guns?"

"Dammit. The Institute is gonna close down cause of ya."

"Remy's sure deh institute is gonna stay squeaky clean. Hey, why y' lyin' in bed, too?" He asked, before suddenly smirking. I rolled my eyes.

"Because mah powers suddenly reappeared fo' no.. reason... at all. And it ain't normal, dammit!" I yelled, slamming my hand on the bed. "Why does the world hate me so much? First, I knock out my first boyfriend, then I figure out I'm a mutant with an uncontrollable power. And then, when I take this supposed cure so I can give my boyfriend a kiss, he turns out to have been cheating on me with that stupid Kitty! So I take a vacation to somewhere warm and sunny, finally feel normal, and then I've got poisonous skin again because apparently it's bettah than havin' an immune system!"

"Y' have poisonous skin?"

"Yeah. Whoever Ah touch Ah absorb. Their thoughts, their memories, their skills, powers, all mine. Their powers fade away, but a little bit of them just stays with me. Kinda lahke having multiple personalities but ya know you're not crazy."

"Dat sucks."

"Don't I know it." She sighed.

"So y' can't touch anyone?"

"Rub it in, why don't ya?" She spat.

"No need t' get touchy, _chere_. 'M just wondering."

"It's kinda clear."

"Y' don' have control?"

"Cajun! Ah don't have control, okay? Mah first boyfriend Ah put in a _coma_! Ah almost killed mah best friend just by touchin' him for a second! Twice! Ah got _kidnapped _because of mah powers and Ah couldn't even stop _this _from happening!" She held up a strand of her white hair in disgust.

"Remy t'inks deh white's _belle_."

"Yeah, well if it weren't fo' meh almost killin' mah best friend," I couldn't seem to get over that fact, "Mah whole head would be white and Ah would probably be some wrinkly old prune after the life was sucked out of me."

"T'ank god for small miracles."

"You're unbelievable."

"Unbelievably head over heels for y'."

"Do you _always _say so many cheesy things?"

"Not always. 'Specially when he's talkin' t' deh _hommes_." I laughed despite my lack of humor when it came to egotistical men and felt a smile grace my lips.

"Ya know, you're alright." I said, settling into my pillow, "In an annoying way."

"I'll take what I can get."

I closed my eyes as Storm walked into the room, fussing over Remy. Even though he said the most idiotic and annoying things, I found myself not regretting picking up the stupid Swamp Rat on the run from the law. I actually found myself _liking_ the Cajun a little bit.

But that didn't mean he'd ever find out.


End file.
